Monday, 3 April 2017

Meet the pets

I grew up in a very animal friendly house. I lived by a school and we were lucky to have a large garden, with it's own wooded area, which also backed onto some private woods that I used to spend hours and hours playing in when I was young. My Dad built a workshop in the garden and added an avery with some 100 birds in, plus when I was around seven or eight, we had two rabbits in a hutch with a run in the garden.

Oh, and there were our six goldfish in a tank in the lounge, that grew to enormous sizes, and of course our cats. First there were two, then four, then by the time I was a teen, six. Each in pairs, a brother and a sister, and from rescue homes. Nutmeg and Pepper. Marmite and Bovril. Buffy and Highbury.

I guess it sounds like something out of Doctor Dolittle!

It's no surprise that I grew up an animal lover and that we too have a few pets. I never had a dog but hubs has always had one, so we always had that in the plan. We started with a cat. We named it Sherlock before discovering she was a girl, and she was found abandoned with her mum and siblings by a friend of hers, just when we moved into our house almost 11 years ago.

Then less than a year later, we decided to get a Watson to carry on the theme, and when we went to visit a litter of Jack Russell cross pups, the owners had also just had a litter of kittens so we got a cat thrown in for free (figuratively!). Moriarty, or just Arty to us, was the only tabby and we just couldn't leave her behind.

Watson, being a dog, needs the most attention and lets us know when he wants something. He's as scruffy as anything, sleeps on our bed and is perhaps more like a cat that the cats are. His nicknames include Pup, Pupster, Scruff, Scruffertops and Stinky Popcorn Feet (said with affection).

Sherlock is a pretty cat. She's sleek, walks around in a very elegant way (except when she rolls in the dirt outside) and likes to sleep on kitchen countertops and laptops. Her nicknames include Babajew, Slinkydink, Princess, Shirley, Shirleywhirly and Baby Girl.

And then there's Arty. The kooky one of our bunch, she meows when she comes in and can't find us straight away, runs to the food bowls any time we look like we're going into the kitchen and looks permanently bemused. Her nicknames are many too, including Artymouse, Artydoodle, Smartie and Fuzzbuzz.

As you can see, Ethan is really rather taken with his furry friends. He says goodbye to them every morning, in turn, and kisses them when he comes home again. And they are pretty taken with him too. They like the fact he has cuddly toys lying around to sleep on (Watson), boxes to jump into (Arty) and cosy laundry baskets waiting for someone to snuggle in (Sherlock).